People say that all big things start from a small idea. Today I realize how true it is. xkmph Kolkata’s ride for a cause was just a small little thought in my mind, a faint idea to do something good for the society, and what it turned out to be was way beyond any one’s expectations. This is not a triplog where I can boast of the kilometers driven or the places conquered. But it’s a very special one of a kind ride where I can proudly boast of what we managed to achieve. The ride dominated the last few weeks of my life. And now when I look back at these days, I realize that I will keep this experience close to my heart all my life, and I am sure every person who was attached in this ride will do the same

It all started off one fine day when my mom and I were cleaning my wardrobe. Winters were knocking at the door so we were bringing out the warm winter clothes and putting the summer clothes away. As a custom, a few clothes were being rejected and kept aside to be given to our maid/driver, etc. It was at this very moment that the idea came to my mind like a ping on facebook. We had already thought that apart from doing the usual trips, get togethers, events and contests we will also have rides where we will try to do something good for the society. So, I immediately called Sam and said “how about we do a ride where we will collect our old warm clothes and distribute them among the homeless people who sleep on the streets?” He loved the idea and as we ware hunting for ideas for our ‘Cause Ride’ theme, this Idea gave us the perfect platform and thus xkmph Kolkata’s first cause ride - “ride to help the helpless fight cold” was born.

Deriving inspiration from the holy text -

We were freshly back from de-virginizing Tajpur so we decided to let the excitement of the trip settle down a bit and then break the idea of the ride to our fellow xkmphians to see their reactions. In the last week of November Sam created a facebook event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/120195444760504/) and our biker friends welcomed the idea. We got a fairly good response from our fellow bikers and we started to believe that we can make it big even in a ride like this. We were very excited about doing a ride of this kind. But we had little idea of what was to come.With that started full scale promotion of the event from all our core members. Not a day passed without someone sharing the ride event page on facebook or urging their friends and family members to donate for the good cause. But the result was very surprising. We got no calls for donations in the initial days and I was disappointed to say the least. Soon, Santanu da joined us in support and made the cause ride as the headline at xkmph.com. But the result was the same. We got no response or donation calls. Online everyone was showing their support for the cause but in reality we were not getting any kind of a donation and slowly it was getting frustrating. But somewhere we still had our hopes high driving our inspiration from these lines of the Bhagwad Gita - “Do your deeds and don't expect anything in return. The results shall depend on your deeds.”

One Good Samaritan helps another -

Keeping that in mind we kept on working towards our goal and in the end we made a break through. Sam called me one day and said that Santanu da has given the contact number of a media house who is interested to promote our cause ride. We scheduled a meeting with Gaurav Debnath from Morning Star Media PVT. LTD. on Sunday the 11th of December. Things took a drastic change from there. The entire media coverage was taken over by The Good News Chronicles, a product of Morning Star media. To tell u something about The Good News Chronicles, I would like to quote an extract from our facebook page originally written by Sam which says - “When we wake up and open the news papers, there is always something to spoil the entire day, price hikes, murders, disasters, bureaucrats fighting over some policy, and the media trying to show how bad the society is. But do we ever think, what happens to the good news, where do they go? Why no one shares them with us? Well here is something for all of us. The Good News Chronicle (www.thegoodnewschronicle.com) a weekly newspaper which believes the good things in the society are also worth sharing. They bring us news which can lighten the day, make you enthusiastic and optimistic, and bring a smile on the reader’s face by showing that there are even good people in the society, who are doing good things without asking for anything in return." So the good intentions of xkmph Kolkata joined hands with The Good News Chronicles to do something which has never been done before. The ball was set rolling and the collection amongst us also started on this very day.

The meeting went very well and along with the media coverage, Gaurav also gave us some valuable suggestions about how to plan and execute the ride. On his advice we decided to go for a survey ride early in the morning to see the approximate number of people sleeping on the streets of Kolkata. We were off the next morning at 3 am to do the survey. We divided ourselves in two teams, Sam and Supriyo went to the Central Avenue area and Swastik and I went to South Kolkata. The result of the survey ride was exactly as we had expected. We saw that there were thousands of people who call the streets as their home. We were sad seeing so many people devoid of the basic necessity of a home but that made us even more determined to do at least something for them. We knew that no number of clothes will be enough to fulfill the need of so many people but still we thought to do our best.

After the survey ride we now had an idea of what to expect on the day we hit the road. This time around we started getting some responses from our friends on facebook but still there was no sign of donation. In the meantime, Sam was busy designing the posters for the ride and after 2 sleepless nights he came up with these posters -

We were overly happy with Sam’s work but Gaurav being a pro in the media business didn’t quite like the idea of the posters so he decided to get them designed from professionals.

xkmph Kolkata goes on air –

Our next meeting with Gaurav was on the 13th of December. It was on this day that we heard the radio announcement that played on Power 107.8 fm for the next 10 days. The thought of our ride being promoted and the name of xkmph Kolkata being broadcasted on radio brought a big smile on our faces. We saw the basic design of what would be the poster for our cause ride and also decided that we will give a thank you card to anyone who helps us in the ride in any way. The next day I heard the announcement on the radio and a sense of pride and achievement filled my heart as we had managed to spread the name of xkmph Kolkata to all the nooks and corners of Kolkata. Sam got lucky as he had the shortest name among all of us so his name and number was called out in the announcement 10 times a day for full 10 days!!!

A few hiccups -

The next few days went past in anticipation of donations and wait for the posters. But we were disappointed by both the things as we did not get any donations and also the poster designing got delayed. Further the poster that was designed had a rider on a bike without a helmet which was unacceptable so it took another day to get the final poster. Finally when Mark and Swastik collected the poster they saw that the wrong poster had got printed (the one without the helmet) which resulted in another day’s delay.

We had one final meeting with Gaurav 3 days prior to the ride to give the final touches to our plan. We decided to go for another survey ride and make a route plan that would be followed on the day of the ride and the places where we would stop for donation. So it was again a bunch of xkmphians out in the cold at 3 in the morning for the survey ride. This time we stuck in one team and decided to do a demo ride of the complete probable route that would be followed. We started from Shyambazar and ended at Ballygunge Phari, going through the heart of Kolkata towards the south of the city. We marked out different points where we would stop for donations depending on the number of people sleeping on the streets.

By this time we had completed all the background work and planning. We had done all possible things, used all possible means to make this ride big. After all the hard work we left it on god to help us with the donations and he didn’t disappoint us this time. After the initial frustration of getting practically no donation, the words of the Bhagwad Gita came true. Just a few days before the ride we started getting calls and responses for donation, initially from just our friends and family members but later on we got calls from people we didn’t know and people who had no connection to bikes or biking but who identified with our idea and came forward to help us. In the last couple of days before the ride each core member ran around to different corners of Kolkata to collect donation from different people. Ultimately I saw my donation box fill to brim and then overflow. It was I sight that I had longed to see.

Finally the day which we all had been waiting for arrived. All our hard work of the past few weeks was now to be tested. Our condition was perfectly explained in Sam’s words on the event page on facebook which said - “Excitement is high, tension is running through our veins, hopes are going strong, collection and promotion happening on full scale” The whole day went on in collecting the donation from different places. At 9pm Mark got the vehicle which was to carry all the clothes for donation and then we went to the homes of our core members to pick up the collected donations. At 12 in the night we all met at Gautams for a late dinner. We all were surprised and happy to see the amount of donation that we had managed to collect as the car was completely full of clothes.

Happy and satisfied with the collection we proceeded towards Salt Lake after dinner where Dipanjan had arranged for a place to do the packing of all the clothes. Once all the clothes were out, the room looked more like a godown of a clothes factory! Then started the process of sorting the clothes into male, female, children and miscellaneous. And after that we packed the clothes in their respective bags. The team did a very good job as over 1000 clothes were sorted and packed in less than 2 hours. There was a slight problem as Kolkata Police had permitted us to ride in groups of not more than 6 bikes so Sam and I got down to edit our plan and the teams as required.

We had a short team briefing about the responsibilities and work of every member and after that we drove to the starting point of the ride Shyambazar crossing where The Good News Chronicle team was waiting for us. Soon after, we were joined by a few more of our biker friends and then we completed the registration of all bikers and stickering of the bikes. We were now ready to ride.

18 bikes, 24 guys and a car full of old winter clothes set out on a quiet and cold December morning for xkmph Kolkata’s first ride for a cause – “ride to help the helpless fight cold”. At 4 in the morning, when the whole city was peacefully sleeping in their houses under the comfort and luxury of beds and quilts. A bunch of guys on motorcycles were on a ride to help a few of the less privileged people fight the cold. We started from Shyambazar and went on with our ride as we had planned. Wherever we went we were greeted by similar reactions and expressions, we saw expressions of astonishment, expressions of happiness, expressions of satisfaction and lastly, smiles of appreciation. Many people were still asleep when we approached them. Seeing them in a deep state of slumber we decided against waking them up and left a piece of cloth for each person and moved on with a quite “Merry Christmas” wish in our hearts. The few people who did wake up because of our commotion had mixed expressions of surprise which later turned into feelings of gratitude and blessings. We came across people sleeping in gunny bags, wrapped up in thin sheets of clothes, people sleeping on the pavements of houses and shops and a few families permanently living under the shelter of thin plastic tents all fighting for their lives against the bitter cold. The Santa clauses on motorcycles moved from one stop to another, distributing clothes and spreading happiness in the lives of the people who don’t really have much to look forward to in life.

By the time we finished the first leg of the ride in central Kolkata and moved towards south Kolkata it was already dawn and the street dwellers were slowly starting to wake up for their day. So our clothes distribution was not really a surprise affair anymore. It was even better for us as now we were able to see the smiles on the faces of the people and get their blessings. The distribution went on with more and more people queuing up near our car and bikes. Thankfully we had enough clothes for everyone and we didn’t have to turn down any person. In the end we reached our final stop at Ballygunge Phari petrol pump where we emptied the last bag. xkmph Kolkata successfully completed their first ride for a cause and hopefully they were successful in helping atleast a few people fight cold.

What followed after the ride was a big bear hug between all the members of the xkmph Kolkata family. Some of us even had moist eyes. Our effort and hard work had finally paid off. We had managed to achieve what had never been achieved before.

For me it was a small little idea but what we managed to make out of it is incomparable. We don’t know how much that one piece of cloth will matter in the lives of those poor people. But we do know that we were able to do our bit for them. We managed to bring a smile on their faces, give them something to look forward to and who knows, may be one of the old person might survive another winter because of the quilt that we gave him. We also hope that we were able to change the misconception of the common people about biking groups and communities. We hope that they no longer think of bikers as a bunch of rowdy guys doing road rages and creating a menace in the society. We hope that we were able to make a difference.

Following are the experiences of the people who were involved in the rides in their own words –

Sam (Soumajit Chakraborty) – “Sleepless nights, lots of brainstorms, discouragements from many, promises unkept, but we had our hopes high, and had blessings. When we finally hit the road, all efforts paid off when I saw those people smiling at me with their wet eyes saying thank you… A ride – a Deed, I will cherish all my life”

Gaurav Debnath – “When I first heard about it, I was moved by the uniqueness of the idea and being a bike freak I too wanted to be a part of the entire thing”

Arunav Dey – “I didn’t expect the ride to be that huge. Feeling proud of myself and xkmph Kolkata”

Swastik Basu - "it was the best thing that can happen to xkmph kolkata. the high points for me were riding at the break of dawn with 17 other bikers in the heart of the city. It was a scene to watch. the support we got from everybody was great and it feels great to be a part of the cause."

Deb Saha - "We all know wht we have done. I just want to add a little to it. Many people do such things, politicians, welfare societies, NGOs etc.. But every one does for their won reason. But we have done it for only one reason i.e. to help others. and being a biker community no body could even think of something like this. So i am proud of what we have managed to achieve. and one more thing, the ride was successful only due to our brotherhood. i thank my brothers for being there. in the end of it all xkmph kolkata rocks"

Avtar Singh – “the cause ride is one of the best activities I have ever participated in. feels great from the heart after helping the needy”

This ride would not have been possible without the contribution of everyone who directly or indirectly participated in it. We xkmphians thank each and every person who played a part in making this ride successful, special mention to The Good News Chronicle team for being an integral part of the ride and Gaurav Debnath for all his support.

This is Ramneek on behalf of xkmph kolkata wishing everyone a merry christmas and a very happy new year.

What to say, no words to describe such awesomeness, Ramneek as always done a great job putting all our emotions in words with perfect blend of pictures, When we re-initiated xKmph Kolkata after Azad Hind Dhaba ride, we had a plan, a plan that we will execute everything we will plan.

What we promised and what we achieved in the span of 2 months:

1. Short rides/G2g -> we have regular G2G filled with fun and laughter and vrooms2. Long Rides-> We de-verginized Tajpur, North Bengal Camping trip coming up, Swastik is planning the next ODT and the upcoming trips3. Contests-> 50th like contest, Logo contest, another will be announced in 1st Jan (Stay Tuned)4. Bike maintenance tips-> Supriyo does periodic updates on bike maintenance tips5. Traffic updates-> Regular traffic updates are posted in the FB community page6. Cause Ride Events -> we completed "Ride to Help the poor fight Cold" with grand success, me and Ramneek are already in planning for the next Cause ride7. Our FB community page has 114 likes and 110 are talking about it, numbers are growing regularly.

xKmph Kolkata is living up to its promises, and it was un-achievable without the help of other core members and co-moderators. I hereby thank you all as you have taken you responsibilities seriously.

xKmph Kolkata is by far the most talked about, most famous, most loved and MOST EVENTFUL Motorcycle club in KOLKATA and soon will be in India (Thats our vision)

Here is My Event Log:

About The Ride

This cause ride was very special to me, Ramneek is my brother, and I love his Ideas, but this Idea gained my respect, and I love him for coming up with this, In our busy lives, we do so many bad things, knowingly or unknowingly, But this Ride gave us all a chance to do something good, which may secure a seat for us in heaven and also this Ride made me sad seeing there are so many people who are deprived of the basic necessities and our filthy Government does nothing. Rich become more powerful and the poor dies out of cold/heat...I ask myself is this really fair?

During the planning period, I had sleepless nights, because I promised Ramneek and that we will make it big, but did not have the fainest idea...HOW? Then one day I was having my Lunch when Santanu da called me and told me about Mr. Gaurav Debnath,(Thanks Santanu da for guiding us to right direction). I immidiately informed Ramneek, but he did not believe that how big its going to be, I too did not have any Idea, but MY BIKER SENSE WAS TINGLING I called Gaurav and fixed the appointment, and when we finally met, Things took a drastic change. The Good News Chrincle joined hands with xKmph Kolkata.

He loved the idea and took charge of the promotion, so now it was like "you do your job and I do mine and then we combine both the efforts" and we did exactly the same, he took care of the promotion, we got straight to planning, action plan, survey rides and Route mapping etc, since then there was no looking back and thinking small, we knew our CAUSE RIDE will be BIG...

Although there were many people discouraged us, saying "If you wake up those people early in the morning, they will not like it or be chaotic. You wont find people in the streets as its cold. Cops will not allow you. This is stupid. You will not get enough clothes." There were many people who blessed us saying, "You guys are the best. You guys are doing a great job. We will collect whatever we can and help you. Fantastic initiative. Our blessings are with you" so we decided to take the positives, their blessings and moved on.

EffortsSwastik during the entire period did an awesome job, and took his responsibility seriously, so me and Ramneek decided, that a guy like him deserves to be a Moderator, he loves travelling so he became xKmph Kolkata's Trip coordinator, he also helped me designing the posters gave his valuable comments.

Gaurav had something else in mind, so my ideas were scrapped, but the result of what his designer did was awesome, I was glad that mine was not selected still mine ones did the initial promotional job.

When the Radio announcement was presented to us by Gaurav, and the team was saying "Sam tu to famous ho gaya", although it was good that xKmph kolkata's name was now in media, but I had my doubts that how much result it will fetch...and I was right...NO PHONE CALLS, then we got the final posters and thank you cards 4 days prior to our event, as we lost valuable time; we all wasted no time in distributing them and the effort of all the core members was amazing.

The 22nd December evening, Gaurav calls me and says, "Sam there is problem" i was biting my nails and had my figures crossed" Gaurav Says "The cops did not give us permission to ride more than 5 in a group max 6, As riding in a group is not a good thing" in my mind i was swearing like crazy, my eyes were red, and ears were hot...my question was why the @#$@#$@#$ they have a problem? But whats done is done, me and Ramneek decided to replan the whole procedure.

There was two question still unanswered, one how will we pack the clothes, and 2 where will we pack them...but a funny thing happened...I asked Arunav to collect the 25 Sacks, I told him Beg, Borrow or Steal, but we want 25 sacks and he took the job and my words literally , one day prior to the event, I met him at Supriya's place where we were discussing our timings and actions; he comes with 25 bora's, he says, "You know Sam da, I begged no gave me, I said I will return them, no one gave me, then I stood next to Gola shop and sneaked 25 Cement Sacks out, and they did not even notice ", we all were laughing out loud , but good job Arunav, So now we had the sacks, but no place. Next day Dipanjan Calls me and says, "Brother... good news" honestly good news was something my ears were craving for, he added "We got permission to stay in a Club in Salt lake" I initially decided to make everyone stay in my flat but was scared that how will I handle 12 maniacs including myself (who is also a maniac ) in my tiny flat, but then PROBLEM SOLVED, Thanks Dipanjan.

Night before the ride, I asked my boss to leave me early, and He did that with a smile on his face, and said its the least I could do. and I learnt so did Deb's boss and Dipanjan's. Our bosses, colleagues, friends, family and neighbors; all helped us the way they can. we ware all in full scale collection duty, Deb called and said "I am roaming around collecting stuff, my bike is looking like a stack" . Mark collected clothes Durgapur and came...KUDOS BRAH. We were all making phone calls to each other in every 15-20 minute gaps. But Avtar had a different concern..."Brother...What about DINNER?" 3 calls same question but I understood his concern as it was late and Restaurants close by 10:30pm. I told Avtar and Dipanjn that we can dine out in a dhaba or Gauam's Dhaba as they are open late night and close by too, They agreed. in the meanwhile the collection exceeded our expectations. When I reached the club, Dipanjan, 'SHING CHAN' (Shinchan-Dipannjan's friend) Deb, and Sadda Avtar pra came to greet me, soon Ramneek, Mark, Swastik joined us at Gautam's Dhaba with the vehicle that Gaurav arranged for us (thanks again Gaurav) with trunk full with clothes, our eyes popped out in happiness and surprise.Well...we reached the Club after having dinner and then started our work, NO TIME TO WASTE, Me and Ramneek sat for Last minute change in plans (due to the cops interference) and other started sorting and packing, a young boy also helped us and we gave him few warm clothes. It was around 02:30am when Tapas (who had fever), Arunav (Who had Lord Kali Puja at his home) Joined with their contribution and so did Supriya (whos mother was ill) with Arnab, Surajit, Ayan and Sunny and helped in packing...THANKS ALL OF YOU GUYS.

The RideIn the ride, Many joined whom we did not know, but It was amazing, and it was good to see some friendly faces, SADH thanks for coming mate, The Good News Chronicle team was already there, we already knew Sandy, we met Biswabijoy, Sumit and Sumanta there, professional reporter and photographers respectively, also Sumit clicked some amazing pictures and Sumanta did the video coverage of the ride,( amazing guys). After DEB and Mark Did registration, Arunav did sitckering, Me and Ramneek gave Route briefing to everyone, the Cause Ride was in action.

We made 4 teams:Team A: Lead by SamTeam B: Lead by RamneekTeam C: Lead by DebTeam D: Lead by Swastik

While riding and seeing those smiling faces brought a smile on my face, During the ride, how time passed no one noticed, but we did our JOB, as, in the End we had nothing left and last bag was emptied at our last stop. When we finished the ride and finally stopped; I rushed to Ramneek with tears in my eyes, it was both for the success, and also with one question why is this world so mean, why many people do not support cause like this? and slowly me and Ramneek felt that everyone joined that HUG. That day xKmph Kolkata team showed that we do not care what people tell us or how much they demoralize us, we do what we want to do, we have strong determination, may be we are not bound by blood but we are brothers in true sense...and I am in love with all my team members.

Sorry if I have become too emotional, and repeated a few things which Ramneek already have, but I really wanted to thank everyone, If i have missed anyone, I am really sorry. I really wanted to share this, xKmph Kolkata is not just a club its like a family to all of us, where emotion lies in all of our hearts and the passion for motorcycles stays strong...which keeps us going.

xKmph Kolkata...then, now and always Rocks.A special Thanks to The Good News Chronicle team for being there in every step.

Santanu da, honestly i had no intention of writing the log, coz Ramneek did a brilliant job, but then I felt, there are few tiny little things, funny, sad, silly, happy, discouraging and encouraging which needs to be shared and which ruined and made our days, made us jump out of happiness and brought tear in our eyes. Its a ride, which we are proud of, and I wanted to give credit and thank everyone taking thier names from my side...Its an effort of all Kolkata xKmphian's hard work...and its Payed off...and I also want to thank you for having faith in us and your constant support Love you Santanu da...you are the best.@Ramneek: I just brought forward the tiny little emotions we shared through out this three weeks. Some comments from our guys, Some actions and few unmentioned events which got lost in the big picture which i thought is worth mentioning, i presented them, that's all...I love you too brother, and you know it, we are not a good team, we are the best team as we say it Good Cop - Bad Cop

It really feels good after being a part of such a good cause. I was not sure till the last moment (the evening before distribution) whether I would be able to join this event or not, and now I really know what I would have missed out.

First of all kudos to Ramneek for all.........thinking, executing & writing to Speed_Sam too for all his efforts & taking xKmph to a new height in Kolkata...

We all had the time of our life like the morning rides, the gd's for the ride, the collection & distribution of clothes, the happy faces of the helpless people & last but not the least the ride with all the bikers together filling the streets of Kolkata ..........& I'm proud to be a part of the Ride for a Cause& Being an xKmphian

I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY AS EVERYTHING HAD BEEN TOLD BUT ONE THING THAT I AM THANKFUL TO XKMPH KOLKATA THAT I AM A PART IS THIS WHAT OTHERS CALLED MADNESS SOME SAYS WASTE OF TIME SOME SAYS IT IS NOT FOR US BUT I PERSONALLY FEEL THAT THIS IS WHAT A BIKING CLUB OR TEAM OR WHATEVER YOU SAY..... ITS XKMPH... AND THE BROTHERHOOD